Storms damage Mundelein apartment complex, 59 displaced

WEATHERFOLO-022824 — A portion of a Mundelein apartment building’s facade collapsed after storms rolled through the area about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.

At least 11 tornadoes touched down in the Chicago region Tuesday night, the National Weather Service reported.

Meteorologists with the agency were investigating Wednesday to determine exactly how many funnels hit the area.

Preliminary reports show a tornado touched down in Sugar Grove and traveled more than 8 miles before vanishing in Batavia about 10 minutes later. Another touched down in Elburn and drifted nearly 6 miles into Campton Hills; a third tornado briefly tore through a neighborhood in Geneva.

At Waubonsee Community College’s Sugar Grove campus, street signs were flattened, a light pole was knocked down in the parking lot and many trees were snapped or uprooted, but no one was injured, the school said. Some trees were knocked over onto a tennis court, damaging surrounding fences.

A tornado touched down near Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove on Tuesday night. A fence surrounding the tennis courts was knocked down. Students were told to exercise precaution when they returned to school.

“We’re working hard to clear the premises of fallen trees to ensure your safe arrival on campus. Please drive cautiously to campus,” Waubonsee Community College said in a statement. Classes were not disrupted by the storm.

The Sugar Grove tornado pushed a wooden barn off its foundation and caused it to collapse when the twister reached its peak width of 125 yards, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The tornado was the longest-lived from Tuesday’s storms and was categorized as an EF1 on a scale of EF0 to EF5, with EF5 being most powerful.

A tornado touched down in Sugar Grove, flattening road signs and causing other damage around Waubonsee Community College, on Tuesday night.

More potential tornadoes were spotted near Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Lake Zurich and Buffalo Grove.

Tuesday night’s storms were especially destructive in Mundelein, Hoffman Estates and Palatine.

The roof and facade of a two-story apartment building at 32 Washington Blvd. in Mundelein were damaged, leaving 21 units uninhabitable and 59 people displaced, authorities said. One resident was taken to a hospital with arm pain after being struck by falling drywall, according to a fire department news release.

Fire officials believe high winds ripped a 30-by-30-foot hole in the roof, which led to the collapse of part of the facade.

A window in the lobby of an adjoining building was also broken, Mundelein Fire Chief Bill Lark said. No other structures in the neighborhood were damaged, however.

After the building was secured, residents were escorted back to their apartments to collect essentials. Most then were transported to a fire station, where American Red Cross staff helped them find temporary housing.

In Hoffman Estates, a pair of pine trees, each between 15 feet and 18 feet tall, were uprooted and landed on a basketball court at Charlemagne Park, 3799 Bordeaux Drive, said Hoffman Estates Park District Executive Director Craig Talsma. Other trees came down elsewhere in the park and at other parks.

Additionally, a large digital sign at the Willow Recreation Center, 3600 Lexington Drive, was damaged.

Houses in Hoffman Estates were damaged as well.

Siding was torn off Jessica Hernandez-Ramirez’s house on Elsie Lane in Hoffman Estates. She and her family and their two dogs took shelter in the basement after tornado alerts began blaring on their cellphones.

“I’ve lived in Illinois my whole life and definitely never heard a storm so loudly [from] the basement before,” Hernandez-Ramirez said.

Hernandez-Ramirez said other houses in her Bergman Pointe neighborhood were damaged. “A neighbor is missing [part of the] roof,” she said. “Many homes [are] missing siding.”

Other tornadoes reportedly touched down Tuesday night in South Barrington, Inverness, Compton, Hinckley, Waterman and Gary, Indiana, the weather service said.

The majority of the twisters were categorized as EF0, and the rest were considered EF1.

The storms developed on an unusually warm winter day that fell one degree short of the all-time record high for February, reaching 74 degrees at O’Hare Airport before plunging at night to the upper teens. The city is on track for the warmest February on record with an expected average temperature of 39.4 degrees, surpassing the record of 39 degrees set in 1882, according to the weather service.

11 tornadoes touched down in region Tuesday night, National Weather Service says

The roof and facade of a two-story apartment building in Mundelein were damaged, leaving 21 units uninhabitable and 59 people displaced on a day when the high temperature hit 74 at O’Hare and fell to the upper teens.